QUOTE OF THE DAY
“These guys were doing what they were trained to do, and doing it well. But mother nature wins.” Jeff Berino, an incident commander in Colorado and former fire investigator, on the 19 firefighters who were killed in June while battling a wildfire near Yarnell, Ariz.
Article, 4ANo. 2 nuclear commander suspended
WASHINGTON - The No. 2 officer at the military command in charge of all U.S. nuclear war-fighting forces has been suspended and is under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service for issues related to gambling, officials said Saturday.
The action was made more than three weeks ago but not publicly announced.
Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, who leads the U.S. Strategic Command, suspended the deputy commander, Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, from his duties Sept. 3, according to the command’s top spokesman, Navy Capt. Pamela Kunze. Giardina is still assigned to the command but is prohibited from performing duties related to nuclear weapons and other issues requiring a security clearance, she said.
Kehler has recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Giardina be reassigned, Kunze said. Giardina has been the deputy commander of the Strategic Command since December 2011.
House OKs bill to improve drug safety
WASHINGTON - The House easily approved bipartisan legislation Saturday aimed at improving the safety of drugs produced by compounding pharmacies that mix customized pharmaceuticals.
The measure, approved on a voice vote, comes almost a year after a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and sickened hundreds more was traced to a compounding company in Framingham, Mass. Inspectors later found unsanitary conditions at the New England Compounding Center, which has since closed.
The measure, aimed at improving how drugs are tracked from production until they are purchased at a drugstore, would clarify what sponsors said was confusion about the Food and Drug Administration’s authority over compounded drugs. It would also require the agency to coordinate its oversight of compounded-drug safety with states.
Compounders could voluntarily register as outsourcing facilities, which would bring them under FDA authority.
Companies that remain traditional pharmacies would continue to be overseen mostly by state pharmacy boards.
Ex-soldier: Innocent in paid-killing plot
NEW YORK - A former U.S. solder nicknamed Rambo pleaded innocent Saturday to charges he plotted with phony Colombian drug traffickers to kill a federal agent for $800,000.
Joseph Hunter was held after the brief appearance in federal court in Manhattan. His lawyer declined to comment.
An indictment unsealed Friday described the 48-year-old Hunter as a contract killer and leader of a trio of former soldiers who were trained snipers. Hunter, a resident of Thailand, was flown Friday evening to New York after he was expelled from Thailand, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Hunter was charged with conspiracy, attempting to import cocaine and plotting to kill a law-enforcement agent.
According to the indictment, Hunter served in the U.S.
Army from 1983 to 2004 before becoming a contract killer who arranged several slayings outside the United States.
An informant within the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency posed as a drug trafficker and proposed to Hunter and his team that they kill a DEA agent and a boat captain providing information to U.S. law enforcement authorities.
Service held for slain Navy Yard guard
SEVERN, Md. - Slain security guard Richard “Mike” Ridgell was a loving father and steadfast protector of 2,000 workers at the Washington Navy Yard, where he died maintaining his lobby post to keep a shotgun-wielding man from leaving the building, mourners said at a memorial service Saturday.
The 52-year-old Westminster resident was remembered at a church service in the Baltimore suburb of Severn, near his boyhood home. The funeral was one of the last two memorial services for the 12 people gunned down Sept. 16 at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters.
“Mike made the ultimate sacrifice protecting all of us.
For that sacrifice, we his Navy family, honor him and we will never forget him,” said Vice Adm. William Hilarides, Naval Systems commander.
Another service was held Saturday in Washington for network security administrator Sylvia Frasier, 53, of Waldorf.
Frasier had worked in information technology at the command headquarters since 2000. She earned a master’s degree in information systems in 2002.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 09/29/2013